Jinx High A Diana Tregarde Investigation

Chapter One Buffie Gentry pounded the steering wheel of her brand-new Miata, and cursedthough what she really felt like doing was crying her eyes out like a little kid. It couldn't have stalled. Daddy had just picked it up today. There was nothing wrong with anything, it had a full tank of gas But it had died way out here on 101st, and now it wasn't responding at all. And this was a spooky place to get stranded past midnight. You might as well be in West Texas instead of less than twenty miles from downtown Tulsa. There wasn't anything out here but cows and cicadas, mysterious shadows, and an awful lot of dark. Visions of the Rainy-day Rapist and the Southside Strangler kept popping into her head, making her look over her shoulder as she tried to get the damn car started one more time. No luck. And now the tears did come; she sobbed in what she told herself was frustration but felt more like fear. God, this is like the classic slasher-movie setup, girl stuck out on a deserted road at three a.m.next thing I'll see is a guy in a hockey mask She shivered and told herself not to be stupid. There was a gas station not a half mile behind herit was closed, but there was a phone there. She could call the auto club. That was why Daddy had a gold card with them. Resolutelythough it took every bit of courage she hadshe left the protection of the car and started the long trudge back toward the Kerr/McGee station. But she kept seeing things out of the corner of her eye, things that vanished when she looked straight at them, and before long she wasn't walking, she was running. She'd never been so grateful to see a gas station in her life. She fumbled the last quarter out of her pursethis was one of those phones where you couldn't use a charge card, and you had to put a quarter into it even to call 911. She was just glad she hadn't dumped all her change, back at the mall, when Fay Harper had sneered at her for putting cash in the liver-transplant box. Fay had made her so damn madjust because she'd beaten the senior out on the Teenage America finals, that was no reason for Fay to imply she'd gotten that far by sleeping with one of the judges Well, neither of them made it to the regionals, so there. Buffie just wished Fay hadn't said what she did, when Buffie had retorted with the truth nobody ever said out loud. "You should know, Fay Harper. You get everything you want by sleeping around and passing out nose candy." And Fay had said something horrible, whispered it in Buffie's ear. So horrible Buffie couldn't remember exactly what it wasjust some kind of threat. Or promise. Because it had ended with"And when you see what's coming for you, remember I sent it." Buffie shoved her coin into the slot with hands that shook so hard she could hardly dial the number, and prayed for a quick answer. "God damn it." Sharon LeeMar looked at the phone resentfully. It would ring, now, when she'd just gotten a new coat of polish on her nails. It was probably nothing; some drunk, like last night, wanting the auto club to pull the car out of the ditch where he'd put it. Or some stupid kid who'd missed her ride home from some rich-bitch party, and wanted them to provide her with one. Well, there was a way around that. It wasn't like she hadn't done it before. She hit the button with her elbow. "Big A Auto Club," she said. &Lackey, Mercedes is the author of 'Jinx High A Diana Tregarde Investigation', published 2006 under ISBN 9780765313195 and ISBN 0765313197.